Octavian changes his ways
by ReeReeWithAngst
Summary: "OCTAVIAN IS A JERK"-Everyone who meets him However, what if something could slip through the cracks and change the hated augur for the better? What if he could be made into a good person with just one simple act? What if...?


No one thought Octavian Steve Alexander would ever change anything about himself. He was conceited, hateful, malicious, creepy, weird, and the destroyer of all teddy bears.

All the teddy bears except one. Okay, two counting Augustus, but Augustus had never been "life changing". Sure, the little raccoon had prevented a couple of attempts on his own life and was always there to support him as his one and only friend, but the sparing the life of Augustus had never made him think that he should spare the lives of all the other teddy bears. Sure, he very well had the means to do so, and occasionally he would spare a stuffed raccoon from the offering pile out of morbid guilt. Oh, and there had been that stuffed panda he'd taken for his 12th birthday, but no one cared about that, besides he had lost it within a week, which was tragic, really, because he liked pandas. However, despite his few fluffy moments, he went on gutting plush toys with no remorse every day as usual, and no one, especially not himself, thought anything of it.

After all, no one thought Octavian Steve Alexander would ever change his ways.

A lot of things could get a person to change their ways, love, money, family, survival. Octavian chose none of those things. He had never met Percy Jackson or slaughtered the poor guy's pillow pet. So, in direct relation, he had never met Rachel, and had never fallen in love with her (Not to say it wouldn't happen just that it hadn't yet). In fact, his whole life which had been sketched out in technicolor by the Fates and was waiting mere months to be ended, was completely changed by one strange occurrence.

Anything could change your life, as mentioned, love, money, family, survival, also war, loss, mistreatment, however none of those things touched our less than beloved Augur. His life had already been twisted and shaped by mistreatment, and the mistreatment he received just added to his dark and knotted soul. Yet something from beyond came to undo those powerful, painful knots. Something beautiful and strange, something that cost 199.99 at Costco.

He never found out who got it for him, but he would forever remember the day, the hour, the moment, when he walked into his Augur bedroom and saw this ginormous stuffed teddy bear sitting on the ground beside his bed. There was note that said, "For Octavian, don't gut." He couldn't look away from the bear long enough to read the note however, it was too captivating. It was 7.75 feet tall and all Octavian wanted to do was sink his face into it and sob. It was okay to do so too, it was his bear, and Teddy wouldn't judge.

The name Teddy didn't stick. He ended up calling the bear Avalanche, due to its massive size and a few occasions where the thing had fallen on him. He hadn't even minded the crushing weight of the bear. He'd just sigh contently, happy with his little stuffed animal family, and let Avalanche "hug him from the floor".

Reyna was getting a little worried about Octavian, who hadn't shown up for Auguring duties for two weeks. So she went and did her least favorite thing in the world, she checked on him. And things got weird. She walked in on the skeletal blond sitting in the lap of a humongous stuffed bear, practically consumed by the mountain of fluff, and raised and eyebrow.

"Octavian?"

"Yes, Praetor?" He asked, with a small, eye rolling sigh.

"What are you doing? You haven't performed your duty in two weeks, or, for that matter, come out of this room except maybe once or twice to bathe and eat. He gave another one of those eye-roll-like sighs and stood, an Octavian shaped imprint in Avalanche's fur. Reyna noted that Octavian's legs wobbled a little when he stood. He was getting soft. She tossed him his augur knife, sheathed of course.

"I no longer wish to be an Augur." He said, allowing the knife to clatter to the floor.

"You're the only one qualified to be the Augur. We've been through this before, the headaches, that visions, that is part of what you do, and you WILL return to doing it."

"I no longer wish to be an Augur." He repeated.

"You don't have a choice! Praetor's orders!"

"I NO LONGER WISH TO BE AN AUGUR!" He screamed, his face turning red, tears beginning to stream, unprofessional for the oldest one in the room.

"WHY NOT?!" She screamed back, positively sick of Octavian by now.

"I CAN'T KILL ANYMORE OF THEM!" He sobbed, burying his face in the large stuffed animal. From his bed Augustus the Raccoon seemed to glare judgmental daggers at her, like look what you did Praetor. She took a deep breath, counted to ten, and walked out of the room before she became the one to massacre stuffed animals, as well as a few augur bits thrown in.

The new pacifist Octavian annoyed everyone at first, but slowly he became accustomed to being around people as well as toys, and he got, bit by bit, nicer and nicer. When Percy Jackson came Octavian stirred no problems, and struck no deals with Gaea. And never tried to kill the Greeks, thus never killing himself.

The Fates had had it all planned out, his life painted out in front of them, his life string ready, even willing, to be snipped. But somehow something had changed all that, something had slipped through the cracks, one act of kindness, possibly not even meant to be kind, had unknotted Octavian's soul and changed for the better the Augur who no one thought could change.

* * *

 **Because Costco sells giant teddy bears now...**


End file.
